The ICC's fight against opportunism and parasitism

Reader’s letter

Faced with the growing danger of opportunism within the proletarian camp, the ICC has intervened on numerous occasions in its press[1] and has organised several discussions with its contacts and close sympathisers. While at first sight this struggle may seem anecdotal or secondary, the history of the workers' movement, since the determined battles of Marx and Engels (already described as "parochial quarrels" at the time), has amply demonstrated that this is not the case. You only have to look at how the Internationalist Communist Tendency (ICT), an organisation of the Communist Left, can wallow in the illusory quest for influence in the working class at any price to be convinced of this: the ICT prefers to renounce the defence of the fundamental political principles of the workers' movement (in particular, the serious defence of internationalism) and jeopardise the revolutionary perspective, in the hope of winning a handful of militants.

Nor has the ICC hesitated to defend the revolutionary camp tooth and nail in the face of the complacency and “openness” of organisations of the Communist Left towards petty snitches (like the IGCL, the “International Group of the Communist Left”)) or parasitic groups and individuals. Parasitism, and the inability of revolutionaries to oppose it rigorously, has always been a scourge in the history of the workers’ movement, as the struggle of the First International against Bakunin's manoeuvres already showed. The raison d'être of the parasitic movement, full of semi-intellectuals with over-inflated egos, is to hinder clarification between the real revolutionary organisations and their fight against capitalist society.

That is why we warmly welcome the letter below from one of our contacts in support of this struggle.

ICC

 

Letter from Osvaldo

Dear comrades,

In continuity with my criticism and rejection, through my previous statements, of the various forms of parasitism that have been undermining the proletarian political camp for years, today I also express my broadest condemnation of parasitism and my full solidarity with the ICC.

But, at the same time as making this declaration, I want to issue a warning to the organisations that are still part of the proletarian political camp: beware of opportunism, another irrepressible scourge of the workers' movement and in particular of its avant-gardes. For it insidiously opens the door not only to the renunciation of proletarian principles which distinguish this same camp (to the point of leading it to betrayal, see for example the case of German social democracy on the eve of the First World War), but also to adventurism, and worse still, as the ICC report rightly says, to giving parasitism an entry ticket to the communist left. This can lead to a really pernicious contagion of the proletarian political camp, endangering its survival, without which there will be no party tomorrow, the indispensable organ for leading the proletarian revolution to victory.

And in this respect, I want to denounce the parasites and spies of the GIGC who, as shameless liars, in addition to other unfounded accusations duly denied by the ICC - documents in hand - through its press and in public meetings, take the liberty of attacking the latter by attributing to it non-existent councilist weaknesses, precisely on the conception of the party, thereby giving a wink to the other formations of the proletarian political camp. Now, there can be and there are differences on the conception of the party between, for example, the ICC and the ICT or the Bordigist groups, and these can and must be discussed fraternally and publicly with the different groups, precisely in continuity with the tradition which the communist left has bequeathed to us. Instead, we find the comrades of the ICT collaborating with, and even accepting into their ranks, unworthy and dangerous elements like those of the IGCL. This is setting a bad example to the milieu, especially concerning the importance and necessity of its existence for elements who are evolving towards class positions (see the NWBCW committee meeting in Paris[2]). Unfortunately, I fear that the opportunism of the ICT is leading it into a dangerous drift, which threatens both its survival as a group belonging to the proletarian political camp and that of the camp as a whole.

I therefore fully agree with your presentation and will fight relentlessly against opportunism, adventurism and parasitism.

Osvaldo, 15-11-2023

 

 

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[1] See for example Public Meetings of the ICT in France: a real political failure and The 1872 Hague Congress of the First International: How the ICT denies the lessons of Marxism on the fight against political parasitism

[2] No War But the Class War, Paris

On the recent meeting of NWBTCW in Paris